Chapter 22: The War of Revenge

  According to historical records: Liu Bang, the Marquis of Wu'an and Governor of Pei County, fought against Qin general Yang Xiong at Quyang in the west and again at Baima, defeating him greatly. Yang Xiong fled to Gong County, where he was beheaded by an envoy sent by Second Emperor.

  Yang Xiong and Li Yu are both characters in the background of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang's heroic stories. Li Yu is not bad, with a string of military achievements such as defeating Zhang Chu's fake king Wu Guang and killing Chen Wang Shi. Yang Xiong, on the other hand, becomes a tragic figure under Sima Qian's pen due to his consecutive defeats, becoming the first named Qin general to be defeated by Liu Bang in his western expedition.

  Buddha said: All phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, like dew and lightning. One should view them as such. Now, facing the real Yang Xiong standing in front of him, Li Yuan felt a sense of intersecting time and space.

  Is this life still a tragedy like before, or is everything starting from scratch? Li Yuan was so, and Yang Xiong was no exception!

  Yang Xiu, who had just received the great merit of beheading the famous general Fan Chou from Li Yuan, was full of interest and had decided to win even greater honors in the upcoming battle against the Western Expeditionary Army of Chu. He set up a banquet and introduced Li Yuan to his generals.

  Under Yang Xiong's command, apart from Gong Cao Guan Yue, there were also Deputy General Sima Yin and some other mid-level military officers. Although their names had been reported to each other, Li Yuan couldn't remember them. The reason why Sima Yin left a deep impression was that the surname Sima was too memorable. In the era of Three Kingdoms, the Sima family was renowned. Secondly, Sima Yin, like Yang Xiong, had also left his mark in history books.

  Drunk for a whole night, nothing to say.

  Yang Xiong ordered Gong Cao Guan Yue and Li Yuan's assistant Hou Xi to lead over a thousand civilians who had withdrawn from Junyi to head towards Xiangyang, while he joined forces with Li Yuan's army to advance east in the direction of Daliang.

  ——。

  The two armies faced each other and clashed, a great battle erupted as soon as they touched.

  For the current stage of decisive battle with Liu Bang, Li Yuan actually had reservations in his heart. Not only according to historical records, Yang Xiong would be defeated by Liu Bang, but also because the rear route of Yang Xiong's army, that is, the ownership of Hanyang City, would have variables, which was the most fatal. Intuition sometimes proves to be very effective, and at the moment when Guan Yue and Hou Xi crossed the river, Li Yuan's mind flashed with the scene of swords and blood in Hanyang City.

  "Prefect, I have a proposal. From Xingyang to Daliang, there are two ferry crossings. One is Yaoshen Crossing and the other is Baima Crossing upstream. In order to ensure our army's supply line, I request to lead my troops to garrison at both crossings. I don't know if you agree, Prefect?" Li Yuan thought it over and felt that something was not quite right, but he steeled himself and presented his proposal to Yang Xiong.

  Yang Xiong listened and slightly frowned, but still nodded: "Since General Li has this intention, then lead the troops to station at Baima. The Yao family's ferry will be guarded by our army. However, the merit of guarding the crossing and fighting on the battlefield is far apart!"

  Li Yuan heard Yang Xiong agree, and hastily nodded in agreement. The death of Fan Kuai had enraged Liu Bang to the extreme. At this time, the soldiers of Liu's army were at their strongest, and even if Yang Xiong's troops were powerful, they could not withstand the revengeful Liu Bang and his brothers from Pei County.

  Under Li Yuan's command, there were only just over a thousand soldiers, and only a handful of people like Wang Shang and Gan Houbao. Of course, these few were also promoted by Li Yuan himself. Compared to real military officers, they still had a significant gap in commanding ability. Baima Du is a ferry located upstream of Yaojiazhen, although it can't compare with the prosperity of Yaojiazhen, but it's also a place where merchants gather and trade is prosperous. Li Yuan's army was stationed here, which was just right for him to rest and recover, expand his forces and prepare for battle. Since Yang Xiong had appointed him as Duwei and given him an army quota of 2,000, he couldn't waste it.

  October 3rd.

  Li Yuan and Yang Xiong bid farewell at the ferry crossing, while Yang Xiong and Sima Yin led nearly 30,000 troops from Sichuan Prefecture to advance eastward. Meanwhile, Li Yuan led his own unit of over a thousand men westward towards Baima.

  ——。

  Main beam.

  It's like hell on earth.

  Liu Bang wept uncontrollably at the sight of Fan Kuai's headless corpse. To him, Fan Kuai was like a close brother, and their bond was even stronger than that between brothers-in-law who got along well. After all, the power of pillow talk was not something any man could withstand.

  The people of Xingyang were all executed by Liu Bang for the crime of privately communicating with the Qin bandits. The houses in Xingyang, except for those used to accommodate Liu's soldiers, were all demolished and burned, and their property was confiscated. These lowly people from Wei did not only fail to help the righteous army that overthrew Qin but also had connections with the Qin dynasty. Liu Bang showed no mercy in killing them.

  Benevolence and righteousness are only applicable to colleagues or forces that can be temporarily allied, as for the enemy, the two words benevolence and righteousness do not need to be mentioned.

  Liu Bang led the army for three days, and when he learned that Yang Xiong was leading his troops to attack, the old Liu, who had not completely lost his senses, adopted Lü Shizhi's plan. He pretended to be defeated and retreated thirty miles to defend Quyu. Yang Xiong and Sima Yin launched a fierce attack, thinking that the morale of Liu Bang's army was low and they could not withstand a single battle. They chased after them without distinguishing between true and false.

  On the ninth day, the Qin army was besieged by Liu Bang's forces from all sides in Quyu. Before this battle, Peng Yue, a bandit from Juye, and Huang Xing, a rebel leader from Wei, had also arrived with their troops to join the fight. Although they did not bring many soldiers, with the most being Huang Xing with only 10,000 men, but with everyone gathering together, it was enough to make Yang Xiong unbearable.

  Liu Bang compared to Xiang Yu, has this advantage, gentle and magnanimous, roaming and persuading, making many people feel that cooperating with him is the least risky, and don't have to worry about being annexed by him. So when Liu Bang said he wanted to help him out, Huang Xin and others came without hesitation.

  When the enemy is strong, they are weak.

  Moreover, Yang Xiong's mentality has a big problem. Underestimating the enemy, the outcome of this battle is already self-evident and doesn't need further description.

  The armies of Qin and Chu clashed at Quyu, with a fierce battle ensuing. Initially, Yang Xiong dispatched the most powerful long-range unit in the Qin army, the Qin crossbowmen, to suppress Liu Bang's forces. The dense hail of crossbow bolts was so intense that it mowed down a large swath of Liu's soldiers who were arrayed at the front. However, under the rallying cry of avenging Fan Zeng, Liu Bang's troops charged forward with reckless abandon, as if they had taken a stimulant. Meanwhile, on another flank, Cao Shen and Li Shang also led their forces in a fierce assault on the Qin army's central command.

  All roads are attacking, and Yang Xiong is suddenly in a flurry. This is not a battle where two armies face each other, one board at a time. From the beginning, Liu Bang did not think of hard resistance against the Qin army, which was well-trained and studied in array tactics. His method of war was simple: to ambush the largest mobilizable force at predetermined locations, then have all sides ambush, disrupt the Qin army's morale and formation, and thus muddy the waters and catch fish, defeating the enemy in one battle.

  Cao Shen and Xiahou Yuan charged into the Qin army with their eyes wide open, each leading a team of elite soldiers. With blood-stained uniforms, they swung their weapons wildly, shouting hoarsely as they slaughtered one Qin soldier after another in the formation. One or two were not enough; what they sought was the man who had let Fan Zeng die at Daliang - Li Yuan.

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